U.S., NORTH KOREANS TO TALK

U.S. and North Korean negotiators were to meet in Geneva today to begin a critical round of talks that some experts say offers a final chance to end the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

The United States hopes to persuade North Korea to abandon its controversial nuclear weapons development program, to comply fully with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to continue a North-South dialogue aimed at peaceful reunification of the two Korean nations created in 1945.

Even as the negotiators prepared to meet in Geneva, North and South Korea were trying to work out the details of an unprecedented presidential summit scheduled for July 25-27 in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The success of both sets of talks will turn on North Korea's true intentions, U.S. officials and outside experts say: whether the isolated regime is willing to exchange nuclear weapons for international recognition and economic development assistance, or whether its willingness to talk is a stalling tactic to provide enough time to create a handful of crude nuclear bombs.

The Geneva talks, coming two weeks before the scheduled Pyongyang summit, will provide an early signal on whether the Korean crisis is heading for resolution or escalation, experts say.

Robert Gallucci, chief U.S. negotiator in Geneva, said there was no doubt the U.N. Security Council would resume work on economic sanctions against North Korea if the U.S.-North Korean talks and the North-South summit failed to open up the North's nuclear program.

Communist North Korea has repeatedly said it would regard such sanctions as an act of war.

The Clinton administration's decision to go ahead with the meeting in Geneva came after former President Jimmy Carter's visit to North Korea last month, at which North Korean President Kim Il-sung proposed a summit with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Young-sam, and subsequently agreed to freeze his nuclear weapons program pending talks.

In response, President Clinton temporarily halted work on sanctions and plans by the Pentagon that included options for sending military reinforcements to South Korea, where 36,000 U.S. military personnel and 650,000 South Korean soldiers serve in a combined force.